


Damned If You Do

by AirgiodSLV



Series: 28 Lotrips AUs Challenge [12]
Category: The Lord of the Rings RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-04-20
Updated: 2006-04-20
Packaged: 2019-07-20 12:15:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16137047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AirgiodSLV/pseuds/AirgiodSLV
Summary: “They’re making a run for the border,” Dom says when they meet up in a crowded café, with enough ambient noise surrounding them to mask their conversation from the bugs in the walls and the cameras in the corners. “Some of the others like us.”





	Damned If You Do

**Author's Note:**

> AU #6, for [](https://shaenie.livejournal.com/profile)[shaenie](https://shaenie.livejournal.com/).

“They’re making a run for the border,” Dom says when they meet up in a crowded café, with enough ambient noise surrounding them to mask their conversation from the bugs in the walls and the cameras in the corners. “Some of the others like us.”

Elijah sips his coffee – caffee, rather, they’ve taken all of the caffeine out of it because it doesn’t mix well with the drug cocktail supposedly keeping them all alive. No more caffeine, no more alcohol, no more drugs. Clean living for the terminally ill.

“When are they going?” he asks. Dom shakes his head; too dangerous to say that aloud, even here. Maybe especially here.

He leans forward and lowers his voice. “You’re clean, right? You could go too, make it into Mexico. Billy…?”

Elijah shakes his head. “Billy believes,” he says quietly. “I don’t think anything could change his mind, after Margaret.”

Dom sits back in his chair, eyes unreadable beneath his sunglasses. “Margaret didn’t die of Red Plague,” he says. “No one has for decades now.”

“It’s what they tell them,” Elijah says, sighing. His head hurts. They’ve had this conversation before, with Dom repeating what they both know to be true and Elijah playing devil’s advocate to defend his lover. It goes nowhere.

Dom sits forward suddenly. “You should come,” he says, voice low and serious. “Fuck Billy. Come with us.”

That startles Elijah enough to look up, and really take in the gravity of Dom’s expression. “You’re going?” he asks, and tells himself that his voice is soft because of the bugs.

Dom grimaces. “I’m running out of time,” he says. “Sooner or later, I’m going to get caught. We all are.”

“I know,” Elijah says. “But I can’t leave him.”

* *

He comes home and Billy’s upstairs, hand on the open medicine cabinet, standing motionless. Elijah’s heart clenches, but he shakes it off and pastes on a smile. “Hey.”

Billy shuts the cabinet, and the look on his face makes Elijah take a step back automatically, hands curling at his sides for a defensive weapon of some kind that he doesn’t have.

“How long have you been off your meds?” Billy asks.

Elijah’s mouth opens and closes, searching for excuses. “It’s not what you think,” he says quickly, taking another step back because Billy has just taken one closer. “Billy, I know you believe the government and the hospitals but I swear it’s not true, it’s not necessary…”

“How long?” Billy repeats, and his jaw tics, clenched tight.

Elijah exhales. “A few weeks,” he answers, because the game is up now, and he only has one shot at convincing Billy that he’s right.

Billy closes his eyes briefly. “Then you might be contagious,” he says, and when his eyes open again Elijah’s heart starts pounding hard. “There’s still a chance. I’m calling the hospital.”

“Billy, no.” Elijah takes three steps sideways to get between Billy and the phone, hands help up in front of him to ward Billy off. “I’m not contagious, that’s just what they tell us so we turn each other in, it’s a country-wide conspiracy, Billy…”

Billy’s laugh sounds like a crow’s caw, scraped over glass. “Christ, do you hear yourself, ‘Lij? A conspiracy? The government is out to get us?”

Elijah shakes his head, swallowing against the lump in his throat. “I swear,” he whispers. “I swear I’m telling you the truth.”

For a moment Billy’s expression softens, and he’s the man Elijah has fallen in love with over and over again for the last five years. “I know you believe that,” Billy says gently. He shakes his head. “But I’m not going to let you die.”

“Billy,” Elijah says quietly. “Billy, I’m not sick.”

“I’m sorry,” Billy says. “But you know I have to do this.”

* *

“Thanks for picking me up,” Elijah says as he gets into Dom’s car.

Dom passes him a black-market cigarette without comment. “Billy turned me in,” Elijah tells him, although he’s sure Dom must know already, after Elijah’s call.

“Your stuff’s in the trunk,” Dom says. “I couldn’t get all of it, but I got enough.”

“Thanks,” Elijah says, and inhales the nicotine poison like a drowning man finally breaking the surface of the water. His hand shakes a little, and he puts it in his lap, holding the cigarette carefully out of contact with his hospital clothing.

Dom notices. “They dosed you?” he asks, glancing over at Elijah for confirmation.

Elijah grimaces. “Yeah. More than usual, I think they wanted to be sure I went home compliant.”

“How long before it wears off?” Dom asks, checking his rearview mirror with a vigilant low-level paranoia that Elijah knows only too well.

“A few days.” Elijah drags on the cigarette again, and closes his eyes when unconsciousness rises up like a black curtain and threatens to overwhelm him. “I’m fucked if I stay, though. Billy will be watching me like a hawk, I won’t have a chance.”

“You’re really going?” Dom asks. His voice is neutral, but Elijah glances at him anyway, looking for a hint of his thoughts. Whatever’s there is hidden behind the shades and a neutral mask.

“Yeah,” Elijah answers finally, turning back to watch the traffic through the windshield. “I’ve got nothing to stay for anymore.”


End file.
